Sharon Van Etten Shares Ballad 'Staring At A Mountain'

Formidably talented Brooklyn songwriter and actor Sharon Van Etten's visit to Aotearoa last June (supported by Micheal Morley at The Powerstation) was easily a highlight of 2019's musical calendar, with reviewer Ian Craig Brown saying "the crowd had been transported away into some otherworldly plain." Touring her first album in five years Remind Me Tomorrow at the time, Van Etten has returned with 'Staring at a Mountain', featured on the soundtrack to writer / director Eliza Hittman's forthcoming feature film Never Rarely Sometimes Always – an abortion drama following the journey of two teenage girls – in which Van Etten also plays the mother of one of the main characters. Less bombastic than the songs on Remind Me Tomorrow but packing plenty of emotional heft, Van Etten sings her tender ballad amongst swirling synths, twinkling flourishes of piano and gently pulsing percussion, sounding simultaneously intimate and huge – listen here...